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President Donald Trump said he is considering sending more Patriot missile systems to Ukraine and isn’t ruling out a new defense assistance package as he continued to voice newfound frustration with Russian president Vladimir Putin’s refusal to come to the negotiating table in an effort to bring the three-year-old war he started to an end.
Trump, who has surrounded himself with isolationist-minded advisers who’ve publicly opposed continued support for Kyiv, said “we’ll see what happens” when asked whether the U.S. would contribute anything on top of the $8 billion pledged by NATO allies as part of the 32-member bloc’s continued support for Ukraine’s war effort.
Speaking at a press conference on the heels of a closed-door sit-down with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, the president said there has been “a lot of spirit” in Ukraine’s fight against the invasion Putin ordered in February 2022, touching off what has been the largest and bloodiest land war on the European continent since the defeat of Nazi Germany in April 1945.
Trump also appeared to shift blame for the continuation and escalation of the war to Putin, marking a dramatic reversal from how he characterized the situation during a contentious Oval Office meeting with Zelensky earlier this year.
“Vladimir Putin really has to end that war. People are dying at levels that people haven't seen before for a long time,” he said.
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